The historic winter storms in February shattered electric plants across Texas, prompting energy providers to force blackouts across the state to preserve what fragile electricity they could generate.

Ursuline Sister Dianna Ortiz was teaching indigenous children as a missionary in Guatemala in 1989 when her ministry was torn apart in the midst of the country’s brutal civil war.

In many ways, it feels we have been in one long Lent for almost a year now.

Pope Francis told attendees at this year’s all-virtual Los Angeles Religious Education Congress to look for hope amid the pandemic — “a difficult time for all” — in the very theme of their gathering: “Proclaim the Promise!”

“Seeing the results and the images that come out of missions like Perseverance, I hope these will be an inspiration to the next generation of young scientists,” said Jesuit Brother Robert Macke.